Recovering From the Weekend

I think I did just a bit too much last weekend. I am feeling it today!

We met with the alarm rep early Saturday morning after being with mom at her eye doctor on Friday. I crawled into bed but knew I had to be ready for the alarm appointment. He discovered that the alarm kept going off due to a problem with one of the pads. He disconnected it, ordered a new one and made another appointment to install it on Wednesday morning. After a Safeway run, I tried to sleep before a shower and the 21st birthday party of Jim and Kathy's granddaughter.

So, it was at the Ritz. I had been told to dress in a casual manner and that a local Mexican restaurant was catering it. Seemed odd. This was the Ritz, after all. Never questioned it. Saturday was so beautiful here that the traffic trying to get back over the pass was backed up for miles. We were going against the grain, thankfully, so we were fine.

On the road to the Ritz, Michael realized that the father of the birthday girl was behind us. He pulled over to let him pass and we pulled in behind him. At the little check-in house, the attendant told us to proceed to the front door of the Ritz for valet parking. I noticed that the father of the birthday girl was heading down the hill toward the pro shop. "Follow Tommy," I said. Nope, he did what he had been told to do and drove to the valet parking.

We walked to the ballroom at the Ritz and there was a meeting of doctors from Stanford. Nope. Wrong. I motioned to Michael to follow me. We walked downhill to the pro shop where they were setting up for the party. I asked where everyone was? Oops, no party for another half hour. Then, we realized it was not our party! She suggested it might be at the pool facility, another long walk across a bridge and a field.

Just then, we heard bagpipes and looked up to see a lot of people gathered around the cliffs watching the sunset while the bagpipes played on. We kept walking. I was now hot and short of breath. We walked past people sitting outside, we walked off the trail and down a hill, we walked along the side of the pool and the back side of the building before we stumbled upon the party.

We found it! Finally! It was in a very casual setting and I was so glad that I did not dress up! We were able to talk with people we had not seen in a while and I met a wonderful woman. We had a great chat, which made the evening very fun.

She and her boyfriend (who we knew) drove us back to our car and we paid the valet to retrieve it. An adventure, for sure.

Sunday morning, we decided to drive the ridge road to Los Gatos then Highway 17 to Santa Cruz then north to home. We love the ridge road with its ability to see both the ocean and the Bay Area cities at the same time. No traffic. Beautiful drive. The southern part of the ridge road had been closed for several months as it had fallen in. It just opened and we wanted to see it. What a ride. At one point, we were on a tiny road with tons of switchbacks and my stomach was beginning to protest. We made a few wrong turns, finally were able to figure it out but, man, it was rough. We will never do that again. There was so much damage along the way. Many trees down. Lots of slides and problems with the sides to the road.

We limped into Los Gatos, found a small coffee shop near the high school and split a turkey sandwich. Michael needed food for his blood sugar. Over the mountain to Santa Cruz, it was cool and overcast but the sun warmed us up as we drove north. I must admit to falling asleep during the drive. I was so relaxed and comfortable.

After four hours, we were home. It was fun, very little traffic as everyone was in Super Bowl mode. We watched the game, enjoyed our chili and I was asleep right on time. A nice, busy weekend but maybe a bit too much as I continue to recover. I will be cooling my jets for the rest of the week!